Padmanabhan v. Board of Registration in Medicine, et al. (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-111-17)

NOTICE:  All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.  If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us   SJC-12119   BHARANIDHARAN PADMANABHAN  vs.  BOARD OF REGISTRATION IN MEDICINE & another.[1]     June 27, 2017.     Board of Registration in Medicine.  Administrative Law, Decision.   The petitioner, Bharanidharan Padmanabhan, appeals from a judgment of a single justice of the county court dismissing his petition for relief in the nature of certiorari pursuant to G. L. c. 249, § 4.  On May 18, 2017, we issued an order affirming the single justice’s judgment and indicated that this opinion would follow.   In 2010, Padmanabhan, a medical doctor, was terminated from his position at Cambridge Health Alliance, a termination that he alleges was based on false claims that he harmed patients and in retaliation for certain actions that he took, including reporting purported insurance fraud.  Subsequent to his termination, the Board of Registration in Medicine (board) commenced disciplinary proceedings against him, and referred the matter to the Division of Administrative Law Appeals (DALA).[2]  Following an evidentiary hearing that spanned eight days, the DALA magistrate issued his recommended decision in August, 2015.  The board subsequently remanded the case to the magistrate, in January, 2016, asking the magistrate to elaborate on certain parts of his decision and, among other things, to include credibility determinations and clarify certain inconsistencies in the decision.  In March, 2016, the magistrate issued an order indicating that he was preparing a revised recommended decision for the board in response to the remand order.   Shortly thereafter, Padmanabhan filed a “Renewed Complaint in the Nature of a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari” in the county court.  In the petition he argued that his due process rights had been violated in various ways during the course of the board proceedings.  He also argued that the recommended decision issued by the magistrate in August, 2015, became final in February, 2016, pursuant to 801 Code Mass. Regs. § 1.01(11)(c)(3) (1998), and that his petition thus did not stem from, or seek relief from, an interlocutory ruling but rather what was, in effect, a final decision of the board.  The board moved to dismiss the petition on the basis that the proceedings before it had not yet concluded and that it had not yet issued a final decision.  The single justice dismissed the petition without a hearing.[3]   In his appeal, Padmanabhan continues to argue that the magistrate’s recommended decision became the board’s final decision pursuant to 801 […]

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